Top 10 Most-Viewed Trucking Stories of 2012

The most-viewed stories on Truckinginfo.com for 2012 were heavy on news from Washington, D.C., whether from the FMCSA or the halls of Congress, as well as from Lisle, Ill., where Navistar International is headquartered:

In March, the Tennessee Department of Transportation closed both lanes of Interstate 75 South in Campbell County in northeast Tennessee on the Kentucky border, due the collapse of a section of embankment.

In December, a truck driver who admitted to losing consciousness before hitting and killing an Illinois state trooper was ordered by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to stop driving immediately because he failed to disclose a disqualifying medical condition during his DOT physical.

In a victory for Navistar's competitors, in June federal court said that the Environmental Protection Agency should not have allowed Navistar to pay penalties on engines that don't meet clean air standards.

In late October, Navistar announced it would close its Garland, Texas, truck manufacturing operation as part of its cost-cutting efforts. Navistar intends to cease operations at the Garland facility by the first half of 2013.

Interstate truck and bus drivers were prohibited from using handheld cell phones while driving as of Jan. 3. Drivers face federal civil penalties of up to $2,750 for each offense and disqualification for multiple offenses. Companies that allow their drivers to use hand-held cell phones while driving face a maximum penalty of $11,000.

In September, FMCSA shut down Kansas-based HP Distribution LLP and an affiliated company, HP Distribution LLC, after discovering the company knowingly permitted drivers to falsify their logbooks. The investigation found that 72% of the drivers audited falsified their log books at a rate exceeding 10%. One driver was found to have faked his logs more than 50%.

In early July, the House and Senate passed the highway reauthorization bill, easily clearing both chambers. The bill holds transportation spending at current levels, authorizing $101.3 billion for highways and transit over the next 27 months.

The bill kept a controversial requirement for electronic onboard recorders to track driver hours of service (something the FMCSA is already working on.) Yet even as the passage of the bill was announced, an amendment to block the EOBR mandate was being added to legislation in the House. That legislation did not succeed, but it got enough interest to bump this particular story on the highway bill above the many others we covered during the year as far as user views.

In December, President Barack Obama signed the Military Commercial Drivers' License Act of 2012, which makes it easier for veterans and service men and women to obtain Commercial Drivers' Licenses. It was one of the few issues various aspects of the trucking industry agree on, with the Teamsters union, American Trucking Associations and the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association all expressing their support.

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Comments

1.Larry[ July 02, 2013 @ 07:26AM ]

Yes the law is the law but, it is not more laws that are needed. It is more common sense on the part of people that make the laws. Not many of them miss family occasions or vacations or importantant appointments because they fudged 15 minutes.

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Deborah Lockridge

Editor-in-Chief

All That's Trucking blog is just that – the editor's take on anything and everything related to trucking, with the help of guest posts from other HDT editors. Author Deborah Lockridge's career as an award-winning trucking journalist started in 1990.